Credit Cards

We do not have any credit card debt.
It has taken us 17 years to get to this point.  We spent the first 13 years of our marriage with credit card debt...a lot of credit card debt.  At one point I had it down below $5,000, but then we had a medical crisis, and I coped by shopping.
When The Doctor lost his job in 2005, we cashed out his 401K, paid 40% in taxes, but we were then able to pay off both cars and all our credit cards.  We were out of credit card debt for about 6 months, and then I coped by shopping.  So we were in debt again for the next 3 years.
This past spring, we were finally able to get them all paid off.  I am really proud that we did it this time on our own.  We just buckled down and paid them off.  It is such a freeing feeling.  This summer when we bought our new cell phones, we put them on the credit card and then paid them off after, and I hated knowing that we had that debt again.  I was so relieved to pay them off again!
I wish so desperately that we could have done this sooner.  I am going to do everything I can to teach my children to stay out of debt.